The Accidental Werewolf 2: Something About Harry (Accidentally Paranormal Novel) (24 page)

He gave her the look. The one that said he was tired of her razzing him. “Just because I don’t want to be like you, doesn’t mean I don’t want to be with you.”

She smiled the smile of someone who had a secret. His words brought a girlie high, but then she remembered two things: her age and tomorrow. “Do you know how old I am, Harry?”

“I know all about the eternal thing. You’re not going to scare me off with that.”

“Good. Then how old am I?”

Harry frowned, a crease cutting across his forehead. “Nothing but trouble can come of that question.”

“Oh, stop. You can’t offend me. Just give me a number.”

“I dunno. But you don’t look a day over twenty-five.”

She snorted.

“Good save, right?”

She giggled. “Super save. But here’s the deal. Around everyone who’s human, I’m technically thirty-five. But in reality, I’m sixty-five.”

Harry’s mouth fell open in that adorable way it always did when he was trying to process something he just couldn’t wrap his mind around.

She patted his hand. “We age very, very slowly, Harry. So we won’t age appropriately together. I’ll look like this for a long time to come—you, not so much.”

“You could be my mother . . .” His revelation appeared to stun even him.

“Well, at least I’d be
someone’s
mother.”

“I was joking. Wait. No. I wasn’t joking, I was opening my mouth before I thought about it. I can stick my foot in it myself,” he teased with a grin.

Mara laughed at him, rubbing his arm, loving the feel of his muscles encased in a sweater. “It’s okay. Technically, it’s true. No hard feelings, or feet either.”

He let his cheek fall to the cushion along with her. “Did I ever tell you my mother named me after Ralph Waldo Emerson? Harry was my father’s name, but she loved Ralph—quoted him all the time. He said, ‘As we grow old . . . the beauty steals inward.’ I don’t much care what you’ll look like. Sure, you’re beautiful on the outside, but that’s not the most important factor with you, Mara. Not by a long shot.”

Her heart stirred again, this time deeply, shifting, changing, opening up, and as much as she wanted to fight it, she couldn’t. It was so rare, such a gift, she chose to accept it. “Well, you say that now, and those are very pretty words, but you can’t possibly know what the future holds. Everything’s in too much of a jumble.”

Instead of acknowledging her truth, Harry changed the subject. “You really wanted children pretty bad.” It wasn’t a question. It was a statement. One he’d clearly given thought to—wondered about, if his expression was any indication. One that sounded as though it came without judgment, even if in her want, she’d run amok in his life.

“I really do, er, did. Now I just want everything to be okay, and for you and the kids to be okay, too.”

“Are you rethinking your stance on it now?”

“I’m rethinking everything right now,” she told him truthfully. “I realize I didn’t give a lot of thought to the idea someone could steal the formula and create utter havoc for us paranormals. Why I didn’t think about it is the question. I’m usually pretty thorough. I never would have let anyone have the formula for it. I almost can’t believe it worked.”

Harry’s smile was wry. “I guess we can only surmise it would have worked. You sort of started with a living, breathing guinea pig. But I don’t doubt it would’ve worked because you’re brilliant. Yet, I’ve wondered something . . .”

“Shoot.”

“If this pack of yours is so strict about mating and all these rules, how would you have explained how you got pregnant?”

Mara sighed, looking down at their intertwined hands. “I never got that far in my mind, I guess. I wouldn’t let myself get that far. It took me months to get as far as I did.”

He gave her one of his sweetest smiles, making the grooves on either side of it deepen. “So are you willing to share how you got as far as you did?”

“Not if you flayed me alive and poured vinegar on my open, raw wounds. If I don’t ever tell, no one can ever steal it.”

He chuckled, rich and full. “Damn. Fair enough. Either way, I think you’re an amazing human being, and you’re really good with kids. I think the pack should let you have a dozen. I know my kids like you a lot. I’m impressed.”

“I like them, too,” was all she could manage around the lump in her throat.

“So, sixty-five, huh?” he asked, low and husky.

“Total GILF.”

He leaned into her, nipping at her jaw, brushing her hair aside, his breath hot on her neck. “Total package, if you ask me,” he murmured on a rasp of a breath before removing her coffee cup from her hand, then taking her lips.

CHAPTER

16

Harry slanted his mouth over hers, slipping his tongue between her lips, stroking it until Mara had to grab hold of the front of his sweater to keep the world from tilting.

He bracketed her face with his hands, driving his fingers into her hair, pulling the clip that held it up out so the strands fell over her shoulders and down her back. “Hearts and flowers this time—promise. We’ll go slow. Really slow,” he muttered between kisses.

Her heart raced with need at his words, so much gentler than the last time. Her answer was to move closer to him, burrow into the warm shelter of his chest, savor the friction of her nipples, drawn tightly in her bra.

Harry’s hands slipped under her sweater, caressing her skin, drawing out the agonizing wait for him to unclasp her bra and touch her naked flesh.

He drew her to him, pulling her top over her shoulders, teasing her with his tongue, caressing the sensitive flesh of her neck while exposing her flesh to the cool air.

He groaned when he pulled away, scanning her in nothing but her bra and jeans. “So beautiful,” he whispered, popping the clasp on her bra and brushing it off her shoulders.

Pushing her back against the couch with a hot moan, Mara tugged his shirt off, too, dragging it upward, relishing his heated flesh against her fingertips.

She ran her fingers over his nipples, moaning her satisfaction when he hissed into her mouth, sliding down along her body until he was at her breasts.

The brief moment before he wrapped his lips around the tightened bud was full of exquisite agony. Suspended by his dark head against her pale skin, his molten-hot tongue rasping along her collarbone, settling between her breasts, and nipping the underside of one.

She arched against him, rearing up when he enveloped her nipple, wetting it, blowing on it just before capturing it again. Heat, white and thick, spiraled in the pit of her belly. Her cleft grew wet with anticipation, the rib of Harry’s chest between her legs, excruciating.

Mara’s hands gripped his shoulders, digging her fingers into his flesh as he gathered both of her breasts together; he laved each nipple to a tight peak, making her writhe beneath him with the scream of his name.

And then his hands were dragging her jeans off, unzipping, tearing until there was nothing left between her and complete nudity but her lace panties.

Harry slipped a finger into the triangle of material, drawing his finger between her swollen lips, stopping only briefly to drag his index finger over her clit.

Desperation warred with her wish to make these moments last as long as she could. Yet, with a will of its own, her body bowed against his touch, begged for it, each stroke he took, each whisper of his breath across her thigh, made her need deeper, harder.

Harry slipped his tongue along the crease where thigh met hip, teasing, taunting until she had to clench her teeth to keep from ordering him to pleasure her.

His mouth inched closer, sliding her panties over until each increment of movement became a carnal act all unto itself.

He was delivering the hearts and flowers he’d promised slow and deliberate, driving her not so quietly insane.

When Harry finally plunged his tongue into her wet folds, she bucked beneath him with a wild abandon she’d never encountered. The combination of his hands stroking her thighs and his tongue deep within, skimming her clit in hot pass after pass, made her come in a flash of brilliant color and lights.

Mara strained against him, rising up and driving herself against his mouth, spreading her legs and wrapping them around his neck.

It was then Harry drove a finger into her, deep and hungry, and as his lips consumed her and his tongue devoured her, she came again.

Her chest heaved, her lungs begging for air as she rode his mouth, curling her fingers into tight fists.

Harry drew his finger from her slowly, caressing and kissing every inch of available flesh while he did. Whispering, soothing, when she whimpered the loss of his body pressed to hers. He rubbed his cheek against her calf wrapped around his neck, the bristles of five o’clock shadow sending shivers along her spine.

His fingers, now gentle and tender, continued to stroke her, skimming across the tops of her thighs as he made his way up along her body.

Mara tore at his jeans, desperate to touch him, feel the weight of his cock in her hands. Harry helped, driving them downward until he was naked.

His beautifully maintained body gleamed in the firelight, lush with muscle and endless razor-sharp edges of bone pressing against flesh.

Mara’s breath caught in her throat when he slipped entirely from her grasp and pulled her upward with him, leaving them standing face-to-face.

Harry splayed his hand across her lower back, driving her up against him hard, curling his other arm around her shoulders until their chests crashed together.

Mara reached between them, cradling his shaft, stroking the long column of it, lingering over the tip, reaching around him and cupping his ass to knead the muscled flesh.

Harry’s lips sought hers again, his tongue driving into her mouth until she almost couldn’t breathe from the newest round of heat between her legs. He pulled away with a suddenness, drawing her to the floor and splaying his large frame in the small space between the couch and the fireplace hearth.

Mara’s heart jumped at the sight, crashing and pounding in her ears. His thick thighs, dark with a sprinkling of hair, his lean calves, tight from working out, all made her mouth water. The ripple of his abs and the trail of hair led to his erection, stiff and waiting.

“Sit,” Harry demanded, his breathing harsh, his words not a request as he positioned her atop him, her back to his face.

She gasped when their skin met again, leaning forward when Harry placed his large hand under her ass and lifted to hold her just above his cock. Her fingers dug into his thighs with anticipation, luxuriating in the flex of tight muscle.

When he centered himself at her passage, Mara almost wept a plea. Instead, she bit her lip and savored his entry, a slow push upward of thick, hot cock.

Her gasp echoed in the room, the pleasure so intense. Yet Harry lingered, lying still beneath her until she wanted to scream a demand to drive deeply into her. He placed one hand at her waist, stroking the curve of it, slipping it around until he found her throbbing clit.

Mara jolted when he began that torturous stroke of the sensitive nub, her hips began to writhe, moving up and down, slow, steady, and that white-hot need grew in her again.

Harry drew circles on her spine, pushing her forward inch by inch until his hand was under her ass again. Mara lifted her hips to give him access while she clung to his hand, encouraging him to stroke her cleft, moaning long and low each time he hit her sweet spot.

She braced her hands on his thighs, using her core to rock with him, savoring the thrust of his cock, slick from her desire.

Each thrust made Harry hiss, sounding out his pleasure, making Mara smile with the joy being a woman brought her tonight.

She cried out when his thrusts became more forceful, welcoming the stretch of her muscles, gritting her teeth when he sat up and pulled her tight to his chest.

His hands went to her breasts, rolling her nipples between his fingertips. His words, hot and hushed, spurred her on. “Christ, Mara. I can’t hold on much more, but I don’t want this to end—ever . . .”

Her arms went up around his neck with a cry of completion, tears stinging her eyes. This—this moment with Harry—one she’d never even considered; it was so tender and right it left her weak with need. She clung to him as he took a final drive upward, exploding into a million pieces when he demanded she come with him.

He held her tight. The hot press of his chest against her back, his arms around her, all drove her right over the edge into the blissful relief of orgasm.

Harry moaned long and low in her ear, nipping at her earlobe before finding his own release. His arms tightened, his muscles rigid, before he relaxed into her, letting out a long breath of air. The expansion of his chest against her back made her cling tighter to his neck, her fingers tugging on the wisps of hair at his damp neck.

“Who knew GILFs were made of so much awesome? We didn’t break a hip, did we?” he teased, nuzzling her neck.

Mara laughed, forcing air into her lungs, letting her arms drop to squeeze his forearms. “It’s the Bengay massages and calcium tablets. They do a GILF good.”

Now Harry laughed, the deep rumble vibrating against her back. “You’re amazing, Mara Flaherty.”

“In the sack?”

“In the everything.”

Her cheeks grew hot. “Yeah, yeah. Bet you say that to all the geeks you woo into your web of love.”

“Nope, I really don’t. And you’re my first geek in the sack, thus proving geeks rule.”

Leave it to Harry to mix his blatant honesty with a compliment. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

“Not so bad? Not—so—bad?” he mocked, tickling her and forcing her to roll away from him. He pinned her to the floor while she giggled uncontrollably, placing his large body squarely upon hers. His eyes captured Mara’s, glittering with amusement. “So, say again? Not so bad?” He drew her thigh around his waist again, slipping his cock between the folds of her flesh.

Mara giggled from beneath him, loving this version of Harry, playful and light. “Isn’t improvement always the goal? If I tell you how incredible you were, you’ll never work harder.”

He leaned down and nipped at her bottom lip, sending another small wave of heat throughout her body. “So improvement’s what you’re looking for? Tell me, fellow nerd, what can I do to improve this?” he asked, slipping back down to find her breast, lashing her nipple with his tongue until it ached.

She hissed her pleasure, fighting to find words. “More of that could improve your game,” she teased, cupping the back of his head.

“More,” he murmured, trailing his fingers along her stomach before skimming the place between her legs. “Like this?”

Her hips moved to the rhythm of his fingers. “Definitely more of that,” she said on a shuddering sigh, dizzy from the talent of his hands.

Harry’s words grew fewer and farther between when she stroked his cock, pulling him back up into her arms to place his heated shaft between her legs, loving that he wanted her once again.

When he drove into her this time, she opened her eyes, watched each move of his muscles, memorized each clench of his jaw and stroke of his hand. And when he came, she clung to him and held him close so she’d always have this night.

No one could take that away from her.

Not ever.

* * *

“
C
ARL?
Close your eyes, buddy. Mara and the brainiac are doin’ stuff your delicate orbs shouldn’t bear witness to.”

Mara’s eyes popped open at the sound of Nina’s voice to find her and Carl in the middle of her living room, Nina’s hand over the zombie’s eyes.

Harry sat upright, too, grabbing his discarded sweater and dragging it over his head in a rush. His hair stuck up at odd ends, and his cheeks were tinted an adorable red.

“Carl?” Nina swished her finger in their general area. “This is what not to do when you have houseguests.” Nina cackled. “We stayed at Marty’s last night to give you two some time alone. Get dressed lovebirds. Stop exposing my zombie to the nasty,” she ordered, guiding Carl toward the guest bedroom.

As they passed, Carl lifted his hand and gave them a stiff wave of his arm, eyes still protectively covered.

Harry stretched and yawned, pulling the throw from her couch and covering her with a kiss. “Morning,” he hummed against her lips.

“
Afternoon
, lovers. It’s afternoon!” Nina bellowed from the back of the cottage. “Do you have any flippin’ idea how long you two went at it? We thought you’d never get ’er done. It’s a damn good thing I learned to tolerate daylight hours.”

Mara hid her face in the throw, then in Harry’s shoulder with a giggle, forgetting everything but waking up beside him and the intense joy that feeling left in its wake.

Nina reentered the living room, hand now over her eyes. “One more thing, lovebirds. Jeff called in to the police today.”

Mara cocked her head, unsure whether to be relieved or concerned.
“What?”

“Yep. At least he said he was Jeff. Anyway, the cops called Keegan to let him know that according to Jeff, he’s safe and sound. Gave them some bullshit story about a bender in Vegas. Sounded too goddamn
Hangover
-ish to me, but the cops fell for it.”

Harry shook his head. “Jeff wasn’t a Vegas kind of guy. A tech convention in Vegas, maybe. But a weeklong drinking spree? Not a Jeff thing.”

Nina nodded. “I said the same damn thing to Keegan, nerd. I don’t know shit about Jeff. I do know it’s fucking convenient, and I don’t give a shit if his story checked out with some hotel on the strip. My spidey senses tell me someone made him call in. Like by force. The same someone who took my Carl and the kids. His story ain’t sittin’ right with me. So today, while you two make googly eyes at each other, I’m goin’ back to Jeff’s and seeing what I can sniff out. I’m also callin’ that hotel in Vegas. If I have to, I’ll fly on over there and knock some heads together. Somebody has to save the nerds of the world.”